Recap: GIRLS Season 3, Episode 4: ‘Dead Inside’ [A Bro’s Thoughts]

Theo Jones

Hannah’s boss is dead and her world halfway unravels, but in all honesty, she’s still the most stable character on Girls Season 3; and that’s saying something. The cold open of everything revolving around Hannah is kind of how I feel about the season so far. Sure, Hannah’s the lead, but everything else going on in the show right now is what keeps us coming back; and as much as it pains me to say this: it’s working.

In Which Hannah Is Not Sure Whether Or Not She’s A Sociopath (And Neither Are We)

After three episodes of taking a backseat, Hannah’s boss (the always flamboyant and Ray-punching David) dies and she’s finally brought to the forefront of the episode. Adam and Jessa’s initial reaction of how callous Hannah is for only caring about her ebook in the wake of someone she knows dying reinforces the fact that as an audience, we really don’t need Lena Dunham on the screen anymore. Her quote about Gawker (“They report on media news and I’m a media-ist.”) is so pretentious, annoying and just downright unrealistic that you can’t help but side once again with Adam! Adam FTW this season, people.

There was also a nice shoutout to Jezebel (as a feminist site, which is ironic given their expose on Dunham’s photoshop in Vogue recently) and Bret Easton Ellis (my favorite author)! Adam shouts at her “Why Aren’t Your Mourning Quietly!” and you want her to. Unfortunately, Hannah doesn’t for the rest of the episode. She tries to confide Ray (who is the first to bring up the term ‘sociopath’ so it’s appropriate to use), goes gallivanting and twerking in a cemetery with Laird (who I’ll never get over plays Jam on Parks & Rec) and Adam’s batshit sister Caroline, and then compromise her entire relationship with Adam by making him think she has emotions using a fake story from his batshit sister. It sucks and is depressing as a viewer because at this point, we’re all ready to bro out with Adam. Hannah just seems to be fucking with him. THAT AIN’T COOL, DUNHAM.

In Which Jessa Tries To Reconnect With Life But It’s Not Working

Jessa tries to talk to Hannah and then Shoshanna about death to no avail because she’s a soulless human being who I cannot figure out why she’s even on the show besides the fact that Lena Dunham is her friend IRL In the wake of pontificating about The Great Beyond, she finds out that a former drug buddy is still alive instead of dead and makes an attempt to do something and confront her. And then smiles about the fact that she doesn’t have a kid. Yeah. I don’t get it either. (The only redeeming fact about this entire storyline is that the guest star who plays Jessa’s friend is Melonie Diaz who is an absolute revelation in Fruitvale Station, the biggest of snubs ever in this years’ award season. If you haven’t seen it, you need to watch it NOW. Believe me, Emerald would agree.)

Other than that: We find out that Shoshanna used to write poetry about dead people in high school and Marnie quit the cafe after going on a health kick in what was a pretty awesome scene in response to her YouTube video from hell. Fun fact: this episode was co-written by Judd Apatow, and kind of reminded me why I REALLY didn’t like This Is 40 or Funny People. The episode seemed shorter than usual as well, which was good because if we just have to deal with one ‘Hannah is self-absorbed because she always will be’ episode after every 3 or 4 good ones; I’m okay with that. Girls is still strong, but no thanks to Hannah, even if she gets a whole episode focused on her.

Theo Jones works in movie and television marketing. Not to humblebrag, but you’ve probably seen some of the movies he’s worked on. He’s a behind-the-scenes guy. He’s CC’s resident bro-nerd (a term he came up with himself) and has a vast, albeit useless knowledge of the most random pieces of pop culture in his brain. If you like, test him with a random game of Six Degrees of Whoever You Want. We dare you. Find him on Twitter and Tumblr.